Countries are finding resourceful ways to tackle food waste. Some countries are good and some are not so good.
• In the UK, the average food waste per person per year is 74.7kg; equal to 655 quarter pounder burgers. Yearly, this causes for 4.9 million tonnes of food waste.
• Greece leads the way in least average food waste per person at 44kg per year
• Australia wastes 8.9 million tonnes of food a year, 4x more than Sweden (2.1m)
First of all, countries around the world are coming up with creative ways to tackle the global issue of food waste. According to research conducted by kitchen specialists Magnet:
Greece leads the way on minimum food waste: only 44kg of food wasted each year.
Magnet listed all organizations around the world dealing with food waste.
Apps are popular in helping reduce the amount of food wasted. In the UK, Too Good To Go allows users to purchase surplus food from over 4,500 restaurants and cafes at a low price. In Spain, the Yo No Desperdicio app which stands for “I Don’t Waste”. This app also let’s users give away or trade unwanted food items.
In Greece, especially relevant, plans are in development to launch a smart food card in Heraklion. The initiative, supported by the European Regional Development Fund, will collect data from citizens’ shopping trips and tell them what items are in the fridge that have expiry dates coming up.
Furthermore, according to the Food Sustainability Index, people in the United Kingdom waste an average of 74.7kg of food each year, ahead of South Korea (95kg) and France (106kg).
In addition, Australia’s waste is astounding. Therefore, each person wastes about 361kg of food a year. That’s the biggest amount out of all 30 countries listed. Nearly 90% of all tomatoes harvested in Australia are thrown away. Consequently it’s purely based on their looks.
Hayley Simmons, Head of Merchandising at Magnet, says of the research:
“We can already see that those initiatives that are creative and incorporate technology in their approach are proving to be the most successful at whittling down of food waste numbers. It also shows when people feel more accountable for the food, they end up throwing away.
Something simple like being more aware of expiry dates and resisting the urge to buy additional food when we have a fridge full. These are the small changes that can have a massive impact.”
Finally, for more information on the research visit the Magnet site here: https://www.magnet.co.uk/advice-inspiration/blog/2018/February/food-waste-around-the-world/
For more information on the Food Sustainability Index 2017, please visit: http://www.sustainability.eiu
